Cancer patient faced with a tangle straight from Kafka

Government department insists that lost papers mean lost payments

6:58AM GMT 24 Feb 2014

SIR – I receive contribution-based Employment and Support Allowance during treatment for cancer. This requires original GP medical certificates to ensure payment. My latest certificate has apparently been “lost”, so payment has stopped.

On ringing the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) call centre, I was told that at least half of the many phone calls received there relate to “lost” medical certificates.

It appears that certificates are sent via the Royal Mail to a DWP “mail opening-only centre”, which dispatches them to the correct benefits centre for processing.

So just who is “losing” all this mail? Is it Royal Mail or is it the DWP system? No one seems to know or care.

This mad situation is being replicated all over the country, taking up huge amounts of time and expense.

The final piece of advice from the call centre was never to post documents (despite the post-paid envelope provided by the DWP), but to queue up at the local Jobcentre, which would then photocopy them and confirm to the benefits centre that it had seen the originals. This is not very practical for someone currently on intensive chemotherapy.

Having lost my certificate, DWP will now telephone my GP to confirm that he signed it. But he may have to provide a letter as well which will have to go to… the mail opening centre! Heaven knows how I will ever recover the lost payment.

Lynne Carlisle Dronfield, Derbyshire

Steep insurance SIR – I am mystified as to what constitutes a “flood plain” in the minds of insurers.

When we lived in Dartmouth, Devon, our house was near the top of what was known locally as Cardiac Hill. We looked down on the town and the river.

Our car was insured by Esure, and I thought it might be a good idea to take out household insurance with the same company. It refused to cover the house, as its system showed it as being on a flood plain. I made the point that if we were flooded, most of the country would be in trouble. They wouldn’t be moved. It was a classic case of “computer says no”.

How can insurers judge what cover to offer, if this level of geographic ignorance prevails?

Sue Bright Twickenham, Middlesex

Plundered parsonages

SIR – Hurrah for the director ofSave Our Parsonages(Letters, February 22) and boo to middle-ranking clergy and their accomplices.

The next parish to ours has just had its vicarage declared unsuitable for clergy accommodation, and therefore liable for sale when next vacant. Yet it is remarkably similar to the property just bought back to house our bishop, the Bishop of Bath and Wells.

No wonder that, while we still have faith in God, we have little in those who purport to manage his estate here on Earth.

Robin Bryer Yeovil, Somerset

Stretching a point

SIR – Nike, we are told, is going to makeself-tying shoelaces (Letters, February 21). My son has had them for years.

I lace his school shoes with black elastic tied in a bow. There’s no need to undo them, and it saves precious minutes in the morning.

Peta Braddock Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire

Who will be Scottish?

SIR – We know who can vote in the Scottish referendum – broadly those on the electoral register in Scotland.

But if the vote is yes, who will become Scottish citizens? Will it be those who live in Scotland, those born in Scotland, those who now have a British passport issued in Scotland, or (democratically) those who want to be, irrespective of domicile?

Jon Pierce Winchester, Hampshire

SIR – It would be interesting to know the charge, after independence, for sending a letter from, say, Carlisle to Gretna Green.

Terry Warburton Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

Criminal checks

SIR – Employers are legally responsible for ensuring any application for a Disclosure and Barring Service certificate is eligible under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, and the Police Act 1997 (Criminal Records).

We require agreement to a code of practice by all registered bodies that make DBS applications for criminal checks. We publish eligibility criteria on our website, so that employers and individuals can, themselves, understand what can be asked.

We can suspend the registration of any body if we deem that it isabusing the system(Letters, February 18). However, we are aware how challenging a complex policy landscape can be for small voluntary organisations.

Adriènne Kelbie CEO Disclosure and Barring Service Liverpool

Royal flush

SIR – Hospitals were patriotic in the Sixties when “On Her Majesty’s Service” was printed on every sheet of (tough)loo paper. Ablutions became less regal on the change to “Government property” in the Seventies.

Professor Sir Malcolm Green London SW8

SIR – Our host on a holiday in Norway mentioned that he had rented his mountain cabin to Queen Sonja, a keen hiker.

“Did you have to do much cleaning up?”

“No, all we did was to remove pictures of the royal family from the toilet.”

It seems that when only newspaper was available, it was deemed polite not to use any with a picture of the royal family. These were torn out and pinned to the wall.